THT Glossary

Links (63)

Zito Shuffle
Published 12/30/2006 by Rich at Baseball Analysts
... Maybe Zito was a bit unlucky in 2004 or a bit lucky in 2006. OK, average the two and you get an ERA of 4.16. For what it's worth, Zito's Fielding Independent Pitching ERA (FIP) last year was 4.94, his Defense Independent Pitching Run Average (

And Then, The Deluge
Published 1/8/2007 by JammingEcono at Banks of the Anacostia
... ) would fit right in for those Nats fans among us who enjoyed the extra beer time that Tony Armas' glacial pitching pace provided. Seriously though, apart from his 2004 herniated disc and attendant surgery, Trachsel has been one of the healthiest pitchers in baseball over his career, averaging 205+ IP over his career. And by "healthy," I don't mean "good." The question for the Nats should be whether the 2006 edition of Trachsel (87 ERA+, 1.60 WHIP) is the beginning of a late-career flameout. For the price of a 2 year/$5-$6M deal I wouldn't be averse to taking a chance that he's got a few more years of league-average innings in him. He won't be very good (his FIP has increased every year since 2002), but if the Nats could get 170 or so IPs out of him, I'd be happy.

Pirates 2006 Minor League Equivalencies
Published 1/14/2007 by Charlie at Bucs Dugout: Front Page Posts
... These numbers use FIP instead of ERA or RA. Here is an explanation of what that means.

Savannah (Low-A) 2006 MLEs
Published 1/14/2007 by Basil at Federal Baseball: Front Page Posts
... For pitchers, FIP is provided as an approximation of ERA.

Potomac (High-A) 2006 MLEs
Published 1/14/2007 by Basil at Federal Baseball: Front Page Posts
... For pitchers, FIP is provided as an approximation of ERA.

Harrisburg (Double-A) 2006 MLEs
Published 1/14/2007 by Basil at Federal Baseball: Front Page Posts
... For pitchers, FIP is provided as an approximation of ERA.

New Orleans (Triple-A) 2006 MLEs
Published 1/14/2007 by Basil at Federal Baseball: Front Page Posts
... For pitchers, FIP is provided as an approximation of ERA.

Jorge Sosa? Really?
Published 1/15/2007 by Eric Simon at Amazin' Avenue: Front Page Posts
... That 2005 season looks good on certain types of paper. His 13-3 record and solid ERA certainly *look* nice. Dig a little deeper and we see that his FIP that year was 4.53, almost a third of a run higher than the National League average of 4.22 (note: that average includes relievers, who generally have lower ERAs than starters, so Sosa's ERA relative to the league is a big misleading). He had an abnormally low (for him) homerun-per-flyball rate that season, which can be somewhat attributed to Turner Field. He'll be pitching at Shea this year, which is typically a tough park for right-handed flyball hitters, a good park for left-handed flyball hitters, and a slight pitcher's park overall.

2006 Chicago Cubs Minor League MLEs
Published 1/15/2007 by Al at Bleed Cubbie Blue: Front Page Posts
... 5. Jeff included FIP as an approximation of ERA (he doesn't do runs or earned runs on MinorLeagueSplits.com). Here's a page that explains FIP if you are not familiar with that stat.

By The Numbers - 2006
Published 1/17/2007 by Ryan at Let's Go Tribe!: Front Page Posts
... I've included FIP as an approximation of ERA (I don't do runs or earned runs on MinorLeagueSplits.com). Here's an introduction to the concept.

Mulder to St. Louis; was this best for the Cards?
Published 1/17/2007 by Marc Normandin at Beyond the Box Score: Front Page Posts
... re-signed with the Cardinals for two years, $13 million. He won't be back to pitch for St. Louis until midseason at the earliest, and he's no guarantee to pitch much better once he is healthy. Mulder has posted FIP figures of 4.60, 4.24 and 6.05 the past three years, along with

Memphis MLEs
Published 1/25/2007 by ryan vb at Cardinals Diaspora
... Rather than use ERA, which is dependent on so many factors outside a pitcher’s control, Jeff has used FIP, fielding independent pitching.

A Man(ny) Overshadowed.
Published 2/25/2007 by Allen Chace <info@overthemonster.com> at Over the Monster: Front Page Posts
... FIP. What is FIP? Basically, this is a way of measuring how good a pitcher was independent of his fielders' performance. Delcarmen's FIP in 2006 was 3.02, which would have been a great number from a secondary setup man.

After Game One In Houston
Published 5/3/2007 by JP at Reds (and Blues)
... Let’s take a look at how the Reds’ starting is holding up. For those readers new around here, FIP is Fielding Independent Pitching, which is based on BBs, HRs, and K’s. A FIP-ERA below zero is often an indication that the pitcher is experiencing bad luck or some bad defense behind him. However, with small samples sizes, it could just be statistical noise.

Cub Town: The Road To .500 Goes Through Washington
Published 5/3/2007 at Cub Town
... is significantly above league average at .780, but his FIP is a respectable 4.01.) * * * * Alfonso Soriano is finally heating up, with a home run in each of the last two games. Just in time for his return trip to RFK Stadium, where he launched 24 homers last year. Better yet, he's showing opposite field power...

Yankee Offense by Linear Weights through May 8
Published 5/9/2007 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
... has again got the Yankees into position to go to .500. We'll see if they can capitalize on that tonight. Andy Pettitte continued to pitch effectively this year. His peripherals are still a little lackluster. His ERA of 2.85 is about a run lower than his FIP of 3.88. Even if he pitches closer to his FIP going forward, he'll be solid. Jorge Posada's having a remarkable season to this point. After last night, he's hitting .354/.420/.556. By position-adjusted

Mo Rivera's ERA Is 8.44
Published 5/9/2007 by Steve Lombardi at WasWatching.com
... According to the Stat Glossary at the Hardball Times, Fielding Independent Pitching is a "measure of all those things for which a pitcher is specifically responsible. The formula is (HR*13+(BB+HBP)*3-K*2)/IP, plus a league-specific factor (usually around 3.2) to round out the number to an equivalent ERA number. FIP helps you understand how well a pitcher pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded. FIP was invented by

The disaster named Hector Carrasco
Published 6/12/2007 by Bjoern at Angels Dust
... ) and fielding independant pitching (FIP) are usually good indicators for bad luck, but neither suggest that Carrasco has been treated too miserly by Fortuna. His BABIP of .311 is a little higher than the league average, but that may just be him putting the balls where they can be hit more easily. His FIP of 6.30 is nearly the same as his ERA, so it is not like the defense is letting him down, too. Carrasco’s demise can more easily be attributed to the fact that balls hit of him are going into the air more than ever before. He is allowing a very high percentage of line drives (21.3 %), but more more noticeably, his ground ball rate is down to 38.9 % from a career average of 45.8 %. That is a dramatical increase, especially if those flyballs do not stay in the infield and have the tendency to leave the park.

The Surge
Published 6/18/2007 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
... or all players. Players are sorted from most to least valuable . Almost everyone on the team has been average or above, but it's been the A-Rod and Abreu show. After a down May, Alex Rodriguez is on fire. For all the talk about how Johnny Damon has been hitting better as a DH, he really hasn't been that good. The big thing is that the whole team is hitting fairly consistently overall. Even Miguel Cairo hasn't been horrendous, although the more he plays the more he's going to cost the team on offense, and I say this as one of his biggest fans. Overall, they're 29 runs above average over the last 17 games on offense. Of course, we all know that pitching wins championships . Not really, but it sure helps. Here's how the pitching staff has done so far. RSAA is runs saved above average, which is simply the difference between how many runs a pitcher has given up compared to what an average pitcher would have in the same number of innings (earned and unearned runs). FIP is ...

Yankee Pitching at the All Star Break
Published 7/9/2007 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
Monday, July 9, 2007 Yankee Pitching at the All Star Break I'm still mad about Saturday's game, but we must soldier on I guess. Anyway, the All Star Break is a good time to catch up on the team's performances to this point. I think I've been neglecting pitching this season because of how much "fun" it's been harping on the offense and defense, so today I'm going to look at the pitching staff so far. First, here are the Yankees pitchers sorted by most valuable to least valuable by runs saved above average. Read after the chart for explanations of all the columns. RSAA is runs saved above average, which I calculate by subracting the pitcher's runs allowed average from the league average runs allowed average, dividing by nine and then multiplying times innings pitched. Starters are compared to starters, relievers are compared to relievers, as relievers collectively have an RA of about .5 runs less than starters. RA is just the equivalent of ERA, but includes unearned runs. ...

Sox Mid-Season Report Cards: Rotation.
Published 7/10/2007 by Allen Chace <info@overthemonster.com> at Over the Monster: Front Page Posts
... (What the F is this?), he's been the best in the AL this season, and third best in the ML behind Jake Peavy and Chris Young. No matter how you slice it, he's put himself in elite company.  Let's hope those avulsions that caused us such revulsion are a thing of the past. (Good god that was clever.) A+ ...

Dodger Thoughts: Betemit Traded to Yankees for Middle Reliever Proctor
Published 7/31/2007 at Dodger Thoughts
... , I called the trade "pointless.") Proctor became a major leaguer the following year with New York, and after two seasons of relative ineffectiveness, he came on in 2006 to throw 102 1/3 innings of relief (83 games) with an ERA+ of 125 (100 being average), striking out 89 while allowing 122 baserunners. This season, Proctor has pitched 54 1/3 innings with slightly more difficulty – ERA+ of 113. Beyond that, he has allowed 82 baserunners and eight home runs. His strikeout rate is declining. And he's been more lucky than unlucky, given that his fielding-independent ERA , according to The Hardball Times , is 5.49. He may be a victim of overwork, but that isn't likely to change in Los Angeles. Still, with Rudy Seanez, after 3 1/2 months, finally becoming as unreliable as one would have expected in March, and with Dodger starting pitchers struggling to pitch past the sixth inning, even an average relief pitcher coul ...

July 2007 Reds Review Part 1: Overview
Published 8/2/2007 by Justin at On Baseball and the Reds
... And it doesn't seem like they did it with their pitching, which posted a 4.80 FIP on the month, 10th in the league and identical to the June numbers. ...

pre-Game Show: Astros @ Braves Gm3
Published 8/2/2007 by TD at Rain Delay
... e and really. He s hasn t pitched more than 6.1 innings (that came in his second start) and he only started 4 innings in his last start against Arizona. His K/BB rate is all out of whack, the kid can t find the strike zone. But it s not like the Braves have many options out there right now. There s Lance Cormier who s strung some good starts together lately in Richmond, I suggest Blaine Boyer but he seems to be getting rocked lately. It s not like there s a lot out there, hell JS said it the other night - no starting pitching. Get offense and club your opponent to death and hope to build enough of a lead. I m not overly sure I like that line of thinking. Woody Williams (5-12, 85 ERA+) he of the 40 and over club take the mound for the Astros.  Double Dub is 2-3 in his last seven starts, loosing his last one to the Padres where he went 6 innings allowing 5 runs on 8 hits - he struck out 5 and walked 2. In his last career starts against Atlanta he s 4-1 with just over 2 ERA. His ...

pre-Game Show: Braves @ Reds gm3
Published 8/22/2007 by TD at Rain Delay
Been a while since I ve done a pre-game post. Once again we re at the back of the rotation, yesterday Jo-Jo got the start because Chuck James has a cranky shoulder. Now, we move on to Lance Cormier - need I say more? Mets beat the Pads, Phillies beat the Dodgers. Where goes that put us? A season HIGH 6 games out of first place, though we re only one game out of the wild card. -==The Pitchers==- Lance Cormier (0-3, 43 ERA+) tries to go more than 5 innings for the Braves. What else can you say really? Lance hasn t found the form that originally set him above Kyle Davies in the spring. He s just plain horrible to be honest, he s only gone 7 innings plus once. His last outing was that 7+ in a loss to Arizona. Looking at his FIP - it s a robust 10.35 which is terrible on all levels. At this point, I d most likely feel comfortable with Villarreal in the rotation instead. Bronson Arryo (6-13, 102 ERA+) he of the high leg ...

Is Moose Good Again?
Published 9/19/2007 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Is Moose Good Again? Mike Mussina backed up an encouraging outing in his last start with his best start of the season last night. It's tempting to assume that Moose is back, but two starts is a very sample size. Then again, so are the three starts where he stunk. So the question is if Mike Mussina has found something, or if he never really lost anything to begin with. Dates GS W L IP TBF H HR R ER SO BB ERA RA 8/16-8/27 3 0 3 9.7 59 25 1 20 19 3 5 17.69 18.62 9/12-9/18 2 2 0 12.7 47 8 0 0 0 7 4 0.00 0.00 Dates FB% GB% LD% RS Stk% BABIP FIP xFIP HR/FB BB/9 K/9 8/16-8/27 41.2% 41.2% 17.6% -14.7 63.7% .471 5.48 7.24 0.05 4.7 2.8 9/12-9/18 22.2% 58.3% 19.4% 6.9 63.2% .222 3.04 3.95 0.00 2.8 5.0 TBF : Total batters faced FB% : Fly ball percentage GB% : Ground ball percentage LD% : Line drive percentage FIP : Fielding Independent Pitching xFIP : ...

Andy, You’re a Fine Hurl-er
Published 9/20/2007 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
... t would have been fairly valuable. Instead, Pettitte has been even better than that this year. He's saved the team around 19 runs above an average pitcher and given the team innings. Outside of four bad starts in the middle of the year Pettitte's given the team 184 innings with a 3.08 ERA. Date GS W L CG IP TBF H HR R ER SO BB ERA RA 4/6-6/14 14 4 4 0 92.0 377 91 5 35 30 50 26 2.93 3.42 5/20-7/6 4 0 2 0 20.3 99 36 3 24 23 12 8 10.18 10.62 7/12-9/19 14 10 2 0 92.0 390 98 6 34 33 78 31 3.23 3.33 Total 32 14 8 0 204.3 866 225 14 93 86 140 65 3.79 4.10 Date FB% GB% LD% RS Stk% BABIP FIP xFIP HR/FB BB/9 K/9 4/6-6/14 31.5% 51.7% 16.8% 15.3 62.6% .295 3.67 4.39 0.05 2.5 4.9 5/20-7/6 35.1% 40.3% 24.7% -12.9 62.5% .429 5.12 5.10 0.11 3.5 5.3 7/12-9/19 33.0% 47.0% 20.1% 16.3 62.2% .330 3.36 3.95 0.07 3.0 7.6 Total 32.6% 48.3% 19.1% 18.8 62.4% .326 3.67 4.26 0.07 2.9 6.2 TBF : Total batters faced FB% : Fly ball percentage GB% : Ground ball percentage LD% : Line drive percentage FIP : ...

The 2007 MLB Awards Bonanza
Published 9/20/2007 by billbaer at crashburnalley.com
... in FIP (.323). ...

A Guide to the AL Cy Young Race
Published 9/30/2007 by Ryan <info@letsgotribe.com> at Let's Go Tribe!: Front Page Posts
... Even if you remove defense from the equation, Beckett comes out on top. Fielding Independent Pitching is a statistic that measures "all those things a pitcher is responsible for." ...

2007 Yankees vs. Indians ALDS Breakdown - Part Three
Published 10/3/2007 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
... .92 4.11 95 124 117 -.012 Setup Betancourt 2007 29% 37% 19% 1.48 1.48 2.07 2.74 190 274 162 .419 Proj 30% 37% 19% 2.68 2.55 2.42 2.59 141 255 155 .261 Middle Laffey 2007 64% 15% 17% 4.75 4.56 3.69 3.88 272 147 71 -.022 Proj 64% 15% 17% 6.92 6.40 1.42 1.66 118 607 17 -1.364 Perez 2007 55% 20% 17% 2.22 1.78 2.87 2.55 124 134 154 .381 Proj 55% 22% 16% 2.51 2.12 2.16 3.03 121 133 160 .297 Fultz 2007 37% 35% 22% 2.92 2.92 3.77 4.57 208 75 104 .150 Proj 40% 31% 20% 3.80 3.56 3.63 3.80 146 101 113 .098 Mastny 2007 44% 29% 19% 4.68 4.68 4.05 3.96 115 70 116 .004 Proj 45% 28% 20% 4.83 4.83 4.41 4.00 133 90 120 -.015 Lewis 2007 36% 33% 18% 2.46 2.15 2.35 3.17 328 107 159 .282 Proj 36% 33% 18% 4.45 4.37 1.42 1.66 90 101 107 .128 AVG: Opponents' batting average against OBP: Opponents' on base percentage against SLG: Opponents' slugging against GB%: Groundball percentage FB%: Fly ball percentage LD%: Line drive percentage ERA: Earned run average ERC: Component ERA (31 times OBP times SLG) ...

No Place Like Home
Published 10/8/2007 by Jay at The Futility Infielder
... taking an even closer look at Wang and examining whether groundballers such as Wang tend to fare better at home than on the road: Looking at the performance record, note the consistent disparity in innings pitched across the two splits. Overall, Wang has thrown 55 percent of his innings at home, suggesting that the Yanks may regard that setup as optimal. Second, while Wang's home/road split has been consistent across all three years, the actual ERA disparity is much, much wider than suggested by his peripherals, as reflected via FIP [ Fielding Independent Pitching ]; an apparent home-field advantage of 0.14 runs according to FIP turns into a 1.58 run advantage according to ERA. For those wise enough to pooh-pooh the earned/unearned run distinction, the spread is 1.82 runs per nine innings. The difference appears to be largely due to the results of balls in play. Wang's BABIPs at home have consistently been about 4 ...

Are the Indians "Built for October"?
Published 10/12/2007 by Vegas Watch at Vegas Watch
... Here's what I did. For the bullpens, I took the FIPs of each pitcher. I then tried to figure out about what percentage of their team's relief innings each pitcher will throw. Here are the results of that little exercise: ...

Published 11/1/2007 by Aaron at AaronGleeman.com
... All of which is why, rather than looking at more traditional stats, I'm instead focusing on a metric called FIP, which is short for Fielding Independent Pitching. Designed to look like ERA--the MLB average was right around 4.50--FIP measures only things that a pitcher is specifically responsible for, including strikeouts, walks, and home runs. The idea is to remove the impact of the defense behind them, the pitchers who relieve them, and any luck involved. ...

How Much Will the Mets Miss Tom Glavine?
Published 11/9/2007 by Jeff Mathews at Mets Geek
... Pedro’s back, but the Mets will be lucky to get 30 starts from him and El Duque combined. So who will replace Glavine? Pelfrey, who may or may not ever learn a secondary pitch? Or Humber, whose one start this year was, shall we say, less than inspiring? Well, it turns out that Glavine was really only average when measured by his ERA, which as we all know, isn’t always the best measure of how well a pitcher pitched, and it looks like Tom got a bit lucky in 2007; his FIP (Fielding-Independent Pitching) was more like 4.86. Still not bad, but it’s definitely below ...

How Does He Do It?
Published 11/16/2007 by Alex Nelson at Mets Geek
... Tom Glavine? He’s got none of these things. His control is good, but not great, his walk ratios over the course of his career being only ten percent below the league average. He doesn’t get strikeouts, posting above average ratios just twice in his career. In fact, given what we now know about Fielding Independent Pitching, Glavine becomes a huge anomaly: his strikeout-to-walk ratios are downright poor. In fact, of any pitcher who has won 200 games in the modern era, only three have worse ratios when compared to the league average: ...

Can Mike Mussina be league-average?
Published 12/26/2007 by Ben K. at River Avenue Blues
... , things look a little better. His fielding-independent pitching line, a number that equates roughly to ERA, was 4.58 or roughly league average. His home run totals were down, and while his line drive percentage was up, a lot of those baserunners from line drives seem to be a result of poor fielding. ...

community projection results: matt clement
Published 1/10/2008 by lboros <info@vivaelbirdos.com> at Viva El Birdos: Front Page Posts
... however accurate our projection turns out to be, it as at the very least an internally consistent one. i plugged our numbers in to tangotiger's generic FIP formula; for those not familiar with the concept, FIP yields an estimate of a pitcher's era based on nothing more than homers, walks, strikeouts, and innings pitched. clement's FIP, based on our projected component numbers, is . . . . 4.48, identical to our projected era. right on the button. ah, the wisdom of crowds. ...

Published 2/11/2008 by Aaron at AaronGleeman.com
... Whatever the case, with Santana gone the Twins are counting on Bonser to provide some stability in the rotation given that his 48 career starts are tied with Scott Baker for the most on the staff. Compared to his rookie season Bonser lost 12 percent of his strikeouts and handed out 50 percent more walks last year, but also did a better job keeping the ball on the ground and in the ballpark. There's no doubt that Bonser struggled, but his 4.60 xFIP suggests that he pitched better than his ugly 5.10 ERA shows. ...

Top 40 Seasons by a Yankee Starting Pitcher
Published 2/14/2008 at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
... gives us the expected league average ERA in Yankee Stadium for the season in question. Next, I just subtract the pitcher's RA from the league average RA and divide by nine. This gives us a runs saved per inning rate. Lastly, I multiply by innings pitched and we can see how many total runs the pitcher saved compared to a league average pitcher over the same number of innings. I also calculated ERSAA(earned runs saved above average) and FRSAA (FIP runs saved above average). FIP is a way to calculate a pitcher's skill independent of his BABIP which can be impacted by their ...

Published 3/5/2008 by Aaron at AaronGleeman.com
... with a 2.14 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) and only Kevin Slowey (2.39) joined him below 2.90. Robertson was one of just nine teenage pitchers who threw at least 90 innings in the 14-team Midwest League, yet his 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings ranked second in the league behind only Dodgers uber-prospect Clayton Kershaw at 12.4. ...

Published 4/16/2008 by Aaron at AaronGleeman.com
... Throwing strikes, missing bats, and inducing ground balls is the perfect combination for a pitcher, so it's not surprising to see Hernandez experience success while thriving at two of those three things. His 2.57 ERA won't last long, because even with the big improvements his Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP) shows him at 4.07, but that still represents a massive step up from the 5.62 xFIP that he posted last season or the 5.40 xFIP that he had in 2006. ...

Minor League Notes, 4/22/08
Published 4/22/2008 by Matt Himelfarb at Mets Geek
... his height, Moviel showed surprisingly solid command with the GCL Mets last year (6.2% BB/BF). This year, the 19-year-old has put up freakishly league average stats (17.0% K/BF, 8.5% BB/BF). What exactly is the problem? An 8.38 ERA. Fortunately, Moviel appears to be a pretty level-headed kid and pitched rather smoothly in his last start (3.1 IP, 5 K, 3 BB). Of course, it would probably help his confidence if he understood the logistics behind his .471 BABIP and 3.10 FIP. Next, we take a further ride down south into the pitcher-friendly confines of St. ...

Go Figure
Published 5/7/2008 by Nick N. at Nick & Nick's Twins Blog
... Floyd, owner of a 5.83 career ERA prior last night's game, was mysteriously having a very successful year in spite of an even strikeout-to-walk ratio and a ground ball percentage of only 32.6. His success against the Twins last night is nothing totally new -- he held the Tigers to one hit over 7 1/3 innings in one outing early this season, and held the Orioles to two hits over six innings in another start. Yet, all signs pointed to imminent collapse for Floyd. His FIP of 5.18 belied his actual ERA of 3.16. His ...

The FIP Match Game
Published 5/15/2008 by The Cheat at South Side Sox: Front Page Posts
... Fielding Independent Pitching , a measure of all those things for which a pitcher is specifically responsible. The formula is (HR*13+(BB+HBP-IBB)*3-K*2)/IP, plus a league-specific factor (usually around 3.2) to round out the number to an equivalent ERA number. FIP helps you understand how well a pitcher pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded. FIP was invented by ...

The Truth About Boof
Published 5/16/2008 by Nick N. (noreply@blogger.com) at Nick & Nick's Twins Blog
... Bonser and Hernandez have both gotten roughly two strikeouts for each walk, but opposing hitters have slugged just .390 against Bonser, as opposed to .485 against Hernandez. This is a big part of the reason that fielding-independent statistics like FIP and ...

High-GB%/High-K Starters
Published 5/28/2008 by Sean Salsbery at Crooked Pitch
... Almost two months in, and it’s still a pretty long list. Control is mostly what separates the studs from the so-so on this list, but it’s pretty interesting that the only guys without a FIP ERA under 4.00 are Brett Myers and Johan Santana, two guys who have had terrible luck with ...

Published 6/5/2008 by Aaron (noreply@blogger.com) at AaronGleeman.com
... In fact, seven wins and a 3.20 ERA are both the best marks Santana has ever had through 12 starts. Santana's velocity is down somewhat and perhaps because of that he hasn't racked up quite as many strikeouts, but the overall quality of his pitching hasn't changed. His Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP) with the Mets is 3.46, which ranks sixth among MLB starters. While with the Twins from 2004-2007, his xFIPs were 3.28, 3.35, 3.42, and 3.55. ...

Progression, Regression or Luck: Michael Tarsi
Published 6/16/2008 by JP the Twins Fan at Twins Territory ()
... into May, Tarsi's performance has improved dramatically.  His 0-5 April record changed to 3-6 after a 3-1 May (half of those games were played at Pohlman too).  In the past month his strike out rate increased from 12.8% of batters faced to 23.1% batters faced.  This led to a decrease in his opponents' average (from .364 to .283) as well as a drop in his era (8.18 to 5.62).  On top of that, his 3.79 FIP is an indication that Tarsi has been pitching much better than ...

Paul Maholm: Pitching Well, Not an Ace
Published 7/11/2008 by Pat (noreply@blogger.com) at Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?
... ). As a result, his FIP (fielding independent pitching) is much higher than his ERA (4.41 vs. 3.93). The Pirates are a bad fielding team, but behind Maholm their DER would rank fourth best in the majors. Give all of the batted ball stuff (which I'm no expert on, but feel fairly confident in drawing this conclusion), this almost certainly has as much to do with good luck as it does to do with Maholm being better than the Pirates' other pitchers. ...

Meh City
Published 7/12/2008 by TCaptain at Life In The Cell
... Really, I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t had more implosions. Looking at any stats besides Wins and ERA, Floyd isn’t doing so super. Going by FIP, only six qualifying starters are pitching worse. He’s striking out a modest 6.2 per nine innnings while issuing an embarassing 3.4 walks per nine. I think it’s awesome that it hasn’t haunted him more. I’d rather be good than lucky, but it’s not as if I’m going to turn lucky down. It just isn’t the sort of thing one can repeat consistently (h/t ...

Bullpenissance
Published 7/26/2008 by TCaptain at Life In The Cell
... with the off-season acquisitions. After building the 2007 pen through stockpiling youngish arms that could miss the strike zone with amazing velocity, Kenny opted to go more for proven veterans entering the twilight of their prime. It’s worked out pretty well, for two reasons. One: Linebrink and Dotel have pitched reasonably well. Two: it opened the way for Mike MacDougal and Ryan Bukvich to get along to careers better suited for their talents, like insurance sales. When you replace FIPs of 4.80 and 6.32 with 2.97 and 3.54, good things happen. Both of the new guys had kind of a ...

Published 7/28/2008 by Aaron (noreply@blogger.com) at AaronGleeman.com
... Philip Humber 396 5.64 15.2 9.8If you're curious, Neshek had a 1.95 ERA and 87-to-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 60 innings at Triple-A when the Twins called him up in mid-2006. That adds up to a 2.48 FIP, which is 13 percent better than anyone on the above list has managed this season. Of course, there's no shame in a Triple-A reliever being worse than Neshek and Korecky's 2.85 FIP at Rochester is still plenty solid. Korecky has a 3.35 ERA and 51-to-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 53.2 innings as Rochester's closer. ...

Pitch f/x: Dan Haren
Published 7/30/2008 by roarke (noreply@blogger.com) at Watching the Game
... Well, Haren has, in fact, been signficantly better for Arizona than he was with Oakland last year. His ERA so far is 2.56 compared to 3.07 last year for Oakland. That difference grows to more than a run when you compare his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching, defined here): this year he's at 2.75, while last year he was at 3.70. He has improved his strikeout rate, his walk rate, his homerun rate and his WHIP this season. ...

Published 8/8/2008 by Aaron (noreply@blogger.com) at AaronGleeman.com
... Livan Hernandez) and will make a very palatable $3.5 million next season. Over the past three years, Bradford has a 2.96 ERA and 3.14 FIP. During that same span, Matt Guerrier has a 3.19 ERA and 4.25 FIP, while Jesse Crain has a 3.70 ERA and 3.87 FIP. ...

Published 8/14/2008 by Aaron (noreply@blogger.com) at AaronGleeman.com
... Crain 722 3.36 4.00 Crain 210 3.28 3.61At worst Bradford has been every bit as effective as the Twins' two main setup men, and based on FIP he's been better than both of them from 2005-2007 and this year. He's arguably an upgrade over Crain and Guerrier, let alone Brian Bass and Boof Bonser. What makes the decision to pass on Bradford even more frustrating is that the Twins ...

White Hot
Published 8/19/2008 by Patrick Sullivan at Baseball Analysts
... record and MLB's third best run differential. They're a terrific team, and in case you have your doubts, check out some of the forensics. Below are their AL ranks in a number of different categories. Offense Runs: 3 OPS: 3 OPS+: 4 AVG: 7 OBP: 7 SLG: 2 HR: 1 (31 more than the second highest total) Pitching ERA: 4 ERA+:3 OPS Against: 5 K/9: 3 K/BB: 1 WHIP: 3 FIP: 2 Bullpen ERA: 4 ========== The White Sox do it all pretty well, and ...

Heavyweight Bout for the AL CY
Published 8/24/2008 by Brian (noreply@blogger.com) at Ontario Street
... If you remove team defense from the equation, Lee has actually pitched much better than Halladay in terms of FIP. Lee posted a 2.63 FIP, despite having the fifth worst team defense in the AL in terms of ...

Heavyweight Bout for AL CY
Published 8/24/2008 by Brian La Shier at Tribe Report
... peel back a few more layers before definitively choosing anyone here. Alternative Stats for Lee vs. Halladay as of 8/22/08 C. Lee: CG (3); SHO (1); ERA+ (180); FIP (2.63); Lead or Tie Blown After Exit (5); RS per Start (5.24); OPP QUAL OPS (.725) R. Halladay: CG (8); SHO (2); ERA+ (158); FIP (3.09); Lead or Tie Blown After Exit (2); RS per Start (4.25); OPP QUAL OPS (.762) If you remove team defense from the equation, Lee has actually pitched much better than Halladay in terms of FIP . Lee posted a 2.63 FIP, despite having the fifth worst team defense in the AL in terms of ...

Published 8/26/2008 by Aaron (noreply@blogger.com) at AaronGleeman.com
... How much of an upgrade he represents for the Twins' bullpen depends on how you examine his time with the Rangers. A 3.65 ERA in Texas is very solid and his .220/.286/.358 opponent's batting line is great. Beyond that, at 3.77 his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) ranks 30th in the AL among relievers with at least 40 innings (slightly below Jesse Crain at 3.71 and Bradford at 3.73). In other words, FIP suggests that he's pitched well enough to be the second or third option in most bullpens. ...

Do The Rays Top 3 Have What It Takes?
Published 9/3/2008 by Tommy Rancel at Outs Per Swing
... is best the the American League and 3rd best in the Majors behind the Cubs and Brewers.  Call me crazy, but I think they could match up.  Just to prove that point, I did the 15 minutes worth of research it took to find out just where the Rays top three starters stack up amongst the other serious AL contenders. I didn’t want to use just ERA, or ERA+, so I used a variety of stats including those. I simply looked up the ERA, ERA+, tRA, tRA+, K/BB, WHIP and FIP of the top three starters for the top five AL teams and here is what the numbers show. ...

How good is Jeremy Jeffress?
Published 9/5/2008 by battlekow at Brew Crew Ball: Front Page Posts
... , we can see that his FIP--Fielding Independent Pitching, which "helps you understand how well a pitcher pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded"--was 3.31. Using Jeff's park- and luck-neutralizing tools, Jeffress' FIP drops to an even 3.00. But how good is that? Let's compare him to his peers, a group of highly regarded pitching prospects that are roughly Jeffress' age (plus or minus a year) and spent some time in High-A this year. In addition to FIP, I'm going to list K% and BB%: ...

UCB Project: Looking at the Baby Birds
Published 29 days ago by Cardinal 70 at C70 At The Bat
... The splits at Minor League Baseball Splits don't list ERA, but instead FIP, which from what I understand is a truer indication of what the pitcher has done.  The Hardball Times defines it as ...

Why Did the 2008 Yankees Disappoint?(Relief Pitching Edition)
Published 5 days ago at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
... . Mariano F’ing Rivera [image] FR: FIP converted to runs allowed FIP: Fielding independent-pitching RSAR: Runs saved above a replacement level pitcher. Mariano Rivera is awesome. Mo rebounded from what looked like the start of his decline to put up what was arguably the best season of his career, at least on a rate basis. How dominant was Rivera? It was only the second season EVER where a pitcher ...

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